alternatehistory.com
Directory & Introduction
Directory:
Edited: A small note for new readers. Osakadave and I spend a fairly decent chunk of time talking about earthquakes. After I incorporate his advice I'll edit the above opening post because (alas
) he certainly knows more about earthquakes than I do. I bring this up so any new readers don't get derailed by that conversation. Like I'll say below, the focus of this timeline is on culture and technology.
I really don't have time for this, but it won't let me go.
Given the boom of pop culture timelines, my interest in technology, the potential for Japanese reform before the bubble pops… well. I've worked on various aspects of those things before, but the pop culture thing sparked my interest in it again.
Bear with me for a second.
Sony bought CBS Records in 1987 for 2 billion dollars[1]. Sony bought Columbia Pictures Entertainment in 1989 for 4.9 billion dollars. The content protection demands of those two sections of the company would critically wound a vast number of future Sony products. The latter purchase was financed by 5 different Japanese banks: Mitsui, Tokyo, Fuji, Mitsubishi and Industrial Bank of Japan. Finally Canon invested 200 million dollars in NeXT in 1989.
If for some reason the banking industry of Japan is in a massive shake-up there's no particular way for Sony to massively overpay to buy into music & movies, but they could certainly stumble across NeXT. Windows couldn't display Japanese characters properly on a computer screen but NeXTSTEP could. Sony's key problems are that their content side has critically wounded the company's digital efforts, and that they never had much software expertise (especially in UI) which is an admittedly common problem in Japanese companies.
A radically different Sony would change the face of consumer electronics in the 1990s, with alternate sales of CBS Records and Columbia Pictures Entertainment changing pop culture in the USA. (Let alone, say, Nintendo which has just launched the NES in America.)
Given the state of the Japanese system in the 1980s one would require massive effort to change it (to deny, as a side effect, Sony the money they needed). Last time I did something like this I went with an interesting domino effect rolling out of a Gerald Ford victory in the 1976 election.
I've decided to go with a blunter instrument this time around. There are a few reasons for it: I feel I underestimated the entrenchment of the system, I feel (a few years older and potentially wiser) that there were both more and less things wrong with Japan than my previous thoughts, and because this current iteration is focusing on different things I needed… well, a big push. Things Are Going To Be Different™ and this creates both conditions for it and a massive blast across popular culture.
Japan, unfortunately has a number of earthquakes. The recent tragedy there is simply the latest example. I sincerely hope no one takes offence to my using an earthquake as a POD, but this is course AH where I figure we all kill or save a million people in a million timelines before breakfast.
If you look at a list of earthquakes in Japan you'll notice that from 1978 until 1993 there were none. Which is strange. There were two dozen (including aftershocks) from 1993 to the present. There were another half dozen in roughly the same time frame going the other direction.
So why the fifteen year gap?
Therefore, as you've seen already, the East Asian "Big One" strikes near Tokyo at 2:18 am on 12 March, 1986. Technically the POD revolves around Node Magazine existing and butterflies from that leading to an earthquake (perhaps coverage influenced a building, and that building accidentally triggers the earthquake).
This timeline is about technology and pop culture. Underpinning it is a number of political and economic changes, but they'll be lightly mentioned. The above post is probably the most serious I'll ever be.
Node Magazine is a British Wired/Rolling Stone hybrid populated by New Journalism wannabes. Postings will be a combination of Node Magazine and an omnipresent narrator (The Futurist Manifesto has taught me how exhausting making every item in the timeline a book is) similar to, say, That Wacky Redhead or The Power and the Glitter!; indeed those two timelines got me thinking about pop culture, and being asked to talk about technology for The Power and the Glitter! got me back onto this.
[1] Before that it was CBS/Sony Records, founded March 1968, CBS Sony Inc. in August 1973 and CBS/Sony Group Inc. in August 1983.
- Earthquake Weather
- The 1986 Videogame Rodeo Computer Roundup Event
- A 25th Anniversary Spectacular! (James Bond)
- "You treat her like a lady, and she'll always bring you home." (Star Trek)
- Broadcast Signal Intrusion Incident (Max Headroom)
- The New Year's Eve 1987 Technology Bash Videogame Cotillion (It's a Joint Party)
- The 1987 & 1988 Pop Culture NEWS OF THE WORLD Report
- The Raging 1988-1989 Continuous Blowout of Tech & Videogames
Edited: A small note for new readers. Osakadave and I spend a fairly decent chunk of time talking about earthquakes. After I incorporate his advice I'll edit the above opening post because (alas
) he certainly knows more about earthquakes than I do. I bring this up so any new readers don't get derailed by that conversation. Like I'll say below, the focus of this timeline is on culture and technology.I really don't have time for this, but it won't let me go.
Given the boom of pop culture timelines, my interest in technology, the potential for Japanese reform before the bubble pops… well. I've worked on various aspects of those things before, but the pop culture thing sparked my interest in it again.
Bear with me for a second.
Sony bought CBS Records in 1987 for 2 billion dollars[1]. Sony bought Columbia Pictures Entertainment in 1989 for 4.9 billion dollars. The content protection demands of those two sections of the company would critically wound a vast number of future Sony products. The latter purchase was financed by 5 different Japanese banks: Mitsui, Tokyo, Fuji, Mitsubishi and Industrial Bank of Japan. Finally Canon invested 200 million dollars in NeXT in 1989.
If for some reason the banking industry of Japan is in a massive shake-up there's no particular way for Sony to massively overpay to buy into music & movies, but they could certainly stumble across NeXT. Windows couldn't display Japanese characters properly on a computer screen but NeXTSTEP could. Sony's key problems are that their content side has critically wounded the company's digital efforts, and that they never had much software expertise (especially in UI) which is an admittedly common problem in Japanese companies.
A radically different Sony would change the face of consumer electronics in the 1990s, with alternate sales of CBS Records and Columbia Pictures Entertainment changing pop culture in the USA. (Let alone, say, Nintendo which has just launched the NES in America.)
Given the state of the Japanese system in the 1980s one would require massive effort to change it (to deny, as a side effect, Sony the money they needed). Last time I did something like this I went with an interesting domino effect rolling out of a Gerald Ford victory in the 1976 election.
I've decided to go with a blunter instrument this time around. There are a few reasons for it: I feel I underestimated the entrenchment of the system, I feel (a few years older and potentially wiser) that there were both more and less things wrong with Japan than my previous thoughts, and because this current iteration is focusing on different things I needed… well, a big push. Things Are Going To Be Different™ and this creates both conditions for it and a massive blast across popular culture.
Japan, unfortunately has a number of earthquakes. The recent tragedy there is simply the latest example. I sincerely hope no one takes offence to my using an earthquake as a POD, but this is course AH where I figure we all kill or save a million people in a million timelines before breakfast.
If you look at a list of earthquakes in Japan you'll notice that from 1978 until 1993 there were none. Which is strange. There were two dozen (including aftershocks) from 1993 to the present. There were another half dozen in roughly the same time frame going the other direction.
So why the fifteen year gap?
Therefore, as you've seen already, the East Asian "Big One" strikes near Tokyo at 2:18 am on 12 March, 1986. Technically the POD revolves around Node Magazine existing and butterflies from that leading to an earthquake (perhaps coverage influenced a building, and that building accidentally triggers the earthquake).
This timeline is about technology and pop culture. Underpinning it is a number of political and economic changes, but they'll be lightly mentioned. The above post is probably the most serious I'll ever be.
Node Magazine is a British Wired/Rolling Stone hybrid populated by New Journalism wannabes. Postings will be a combination of Node Magazine and an omnipresent narrator (The Futurist Manifesto has taught me how exhausting making every item in the timeline a book is) similar to, say, That Wacky Redhead or The Power and the Glitter!; indeed those two timelines got me thinking about pop culture, and being asked to talk about technology for The Power and the Glitter! got me back onto this.
[1] Before that it was CBS/Sony Records, founded March 1968, CBS Sony Inc. in August 1973 and CBS/Sony Group Inc. in August 1983.
- Electric Monk
- Word Count: 840